Want to see how nitpicky the NCAA can be? Kentucky’s athletic department self-reported 16 secondary violations in 2011-2012, including one in basketball and three in football. The Courier-Journal’s Kyle Tucker has obtained the records of those that have been resolved with the NCAA, and some of them are pretty ridiculous:

Football – Level I Secondary

Offensive coordinator Randy Sanders called a prospect, failed to log it in the coaches’ system (UK’s report said because he was in the process of switching from a Blackberry to an iPhone) and former assistant Tee Martin called the same recruit that same week because he didn’t see it logged. A system UK uses called Recruiting Radar allows phone records to be uploaded and cross-checked and revealed the mistake after the fact, so UK self-reported. Later, Sanders texted the father of a recruit twice to inform him that he couldn’t make a schedule visit to a recruit because of the death of his own father. This was before the NCAA changed its rules barring coaches from texting. A third violation came when Joker Phillips got a text from a number he didn’t recognize and texted back “who is this sorry” – only to find out it was a 2012 recruit. Phillips reported himself. Sanders and Phillips both received a “letter of admonishment” and the football staff refrained from calling the involved prospects for 14 days.

Men’s basketball – Level II Secondary

Rod Strickland, assistant to the head coach, “one one occasion … answered a student-athlete’s question concerning game film.” The violation came to light after the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that a player said he watched film with Strickland, who is not permitted to instruct players. In compliance officer Sandy Bell’s report, the athlete said he came to meet with head coach John Calipari, but he was busy with a visitor, so he stopped by Strickland’s office. Strickland was breaking down film, which he is allowed to do, and the player asked him a question about something on the film. Strickland answered and offered some advice on how to better handle a certain play. Strickland was issued a “letter of admonishment” and was prohibited from attending practice for two days. UK compliance agreed to address the related NCAA bylaw in the March compliance meeting with coaches and to educate student-athletes and staff members on the rule.

Some of the other self-reported violations include Rick Minter taking his girlfriend to dinner during a recruit’s official visit, which is apparently off limits because only spouses and children of staff members can be present during off-campus official visit meals. Another involved David Armstrong, who just resigned as Director of Football Administration, using a ribbon board to light the field during a recruit’s visit at night. According to the NCAA, only the scoreboard can be used to show highlights during a visit, and because they had the ribbon boards on, only to provide light for the field since the stadium lights were off, they had to report it.

Check out the violations in full. They’re so ridiculous I think I committed three of them in this post alone.

The Universities are going to fire the ncaa soon. Schools worry about the silly little crap like is listed above – but Duke (Maggette), UCLA (Gilbert 1970s), and UNC (AA studies) – get away with blatant cheating.

Kinda wish Cal or Dickie V or Bilis or SOMEONE, would call out the ncaa at every turn.

At least we didn’t offer anyone cream cheese with bagels, right? That would be a big one.

3) See, UNC didn’t report those, so they don’t merit any attention. The NCAA can only deal with what’s reported to them. Nothing else exists. That’s what we learned from the 500 wins basketball and media guide issue.

Well, clearly Strickland helped our players out during film study. Without his help, we would not have won the national championship. Quick NCAA, this must be vacated. This is so much worse than academic cheating or playing players who had failed drug tests!!

Dude, should we be worried? I think we might be in serious trouble. While we are self reporting these infractions – I must come clean. Back in 2007 at the LSU game, I passed gas in the 3rd quarter. What do you think my penality will be and will UK have to VACATE the victory?

The NCAA’s rules are simply out of control. There needs to be about 25 serious violations and that’s it. A coach can’t take his GF to dinner with a recruit? So he’s essentially being punished for not being married, huh?

“The violation came to light after the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that a player said he watched film with Strickland,”. I wonder WHO that was. I’ll bet he has the NCAA on speed dial and that the NCAA has him on Caller ID.